Thread: Rust in D1 floors - any tricks?

The news is not good.
Pulled up the passenger's side carpet this weekend to be confronted by lots of red rust, soaked underlay - and a HOLE! about the size of a 50 cent piece.
So, I've scraped it back with a wire brush, cleaned the floor and soaked it in two coats of rust converter.
And, the bad news is, I still haven't found where the water's coming in.
So it's going to be off to a windscreen place to get them to go hunting for a leak. Once the leak is found, it will be off to a body place to get some welding done.
Meanwhile, the carpet and underlay are staying out until the leak isfound and stopped.
The only good news is I also pulled up the rear and cargo floor carpets and there are no problems there, so that's a small relief.
But this water leak has to be stopped soon.

have a good look with a good torch up the A pillars from under the dash, there will be signs of rust marks around the little brackets that are spot welded to the side of the pillar. if there are your alpine windows, gutters or windscreen are leaking.
if there are no signs then the water was coming from road up.

cheers phil

Will do thanks, my plan is to get an expert to look at the windscreen and sunroof.

The good news is the windscreen has been inspected and is not leaking.
We don't think it's the door seals, which is good as I was quoted $650 for five genuine doors of LR seals alone, plus labour.
It appears the driver's side leak may be from a grommet on the firewall below the brake reservoir, which has several leads going into the cabin. The guy at the body workshop which is booked to weld up the holes on Monday-Tuesday is pretty confident this is the leak, so he's going to seal it up. We're still looking for a leak on the passenger's side, although he's going to look for it when he has it in the workshop. The welding is quoted to cost $619.
Oh, and just to add to the pain, the starting battery died and cost $160 to replace.
Cars - who'd have them?

Water can also get into the driver's side through the vent system - near your left foot. It's obvious if you take a drive in the rain with bare feet!
cheers

That's interesting, I'll have a look tomorrow. Thanks for that.
We think our leak might be through the grommet on the firewall above the accelerator, but anything is possible.
Still searching for the passenger's side leak. The workshop is going to have a good search when they do the repairs on Mon-Tues.

Hey DM, I'm having similar issues. I tool my footwell cladding of to **** a hole in the side of the footwell and water pores in. I've treated all the surface rust for the moment and she goes into the shop for work doing tomorrow. Unfortunately I can see more rust up the a pillar (****). I'm also getting a slight leak on the drivers side and from the roof console but will ask them to look into that when they take the dash out. Oh joy!

Seems to be a common problem. I just regret I didn't act earlier, before it got so bad.
It goes in tomorrow for two days of welding and they're going to try to trace the leak, but at this stage, as I said before, the finger is being pointed at the grommet, which has wires passing through into the cabin. The windscreen and sunroof have been checked and seem OK and the door seals are normal, although they do let water in if blasted with a high pressure hose, but that would be normal I think. Passenger side also being checked.
My driver's side floor is looking white after the rust converter working on it for a week. Once the welding is done and the leak traced and blocked, I'm going to slap on another coat of rust converter over the weld, then a coat of paint over the whole floor, and then a coat of fish oil. That should hold it for a while.
BTW don't forget to unbolt the front two bolts on your seats, tip them back and see what's underneath. There was rust under mine, now treated.
I've also treated the luggage floor near the rear edge, after lifting the carpet, for minor spots to stop them spreading. And I fish oiled both sides at the rear doors, just for caution's sake.